"The State of Fun": How Singapore's Fun Campaigns Legitimise an Emerging Casino Economy

Presented by Dr Juan Zhang (School of Social Science, UQ)

Date: 3 November, 2017
Time: 3pm-4pm
Location: Room 601, Michie Building (#9)

Abstract:

When Singapore opened two luxurious casino resorts in 2010, fun was a key rationale that legitimised the state’s project of reinventing Singapore as an exciting global city attractive not only to the rich and famous, but also the transnational tourists with money to spend. While casino gambling had been a thorny issue for decades, the state adopted creative strategies to re-package gambling with culture, arts, shopping and other services as a total experience of fun and entertainment. Based on primary data collected in a two-year project in Singapore (2013-15), this talk discusses how fun is packaged, promoted, governed and experienced in and around Singapore’s casino space. Calculative logics, maximising strategies, and ethics of self-discipline justify the state sanctioned “Fun” campaigns, which lead to the normalisation and legitimisation of an emerging casino economy as Singapore turns itself into a "state of fun”.

 

Presenter:

Juan Zhang is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Social Science, University of Queensland. Her research interests include transnational mobilities, borders, labour migration, and casinos in Asia. She has published in journals including, Current Sociology, Environment & Planning D, Environment & Planning A, Gender Place & Culture, among others. Her recent co-edited book is entitled The Art of Neighbouring: Making Relations Across China's Borders (University of Amsterdam Press, 2017). Juan serves the editorial board of the journal Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration.

Dr Juan Zhang

 

About Research Seminar and Workshop Series

 


School of Communication and Arts Research Seminar Series

The research seminar and workshop series occur each semester, each with a different topic and guest speaker from UQ or otherwise.

Friday, 16 August
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

Archives: A Knowledge Café on Ways of Knowing, Seeing, Being, and Accessing

A conversation hosted by Kate Newey, Bernadette Cochrane, Madelyn Coupe, and Hannah Mason

Friday, 23 August
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at 09-738

Dispatches from Trump-World: Preppers, Climate Disasters and a Front Row Seat the 2024 Republican National Convention

Dr Tom Doig

Friday, 30August
12-1pm

Indigenising the Curriculum Pedagogy JamDr Amelia Barikin and Prof. Anna Johnston

Friday, 13 September
12-1pm

Assessment Security Pedagogy JamDr Amelia Barikin and Dr Maureen Engel

Friday, 20 September
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

Upside Down: Adaptation and Digital Affordances in Stranger Things

Dr Bernadette Cochrane

Friday, 11 October
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

Linking research, teaching and engagement – the PEATLI project

A.Prof Elske van de Fliert

 

Venue

Michie Building (#9)
Room: 
601